Police on high alert along Vizhinjam coast

Vigil intensified after boat explosion off Porbandar

The City police are on a non-stop high tension vigil, with a situation of alert on in the city and its suburbs right from early November.

The vigil which started with the reported clash of the Thunderbolts, the commandos of the Kerala Police, with a group of alleged Maoists in north Kerala was stepped up after more ‘attacks’ of Maoists, and the blasts in Bengaluru.

Now, after reports on a Coast Guard operation that ended with a boat, allegedly from Pakistan and laden with explosives, going up in fire off the Porbandar coast, the vigil is being intensified to another notch higher.

More police deployed

The City police, which had policemen posted along the coast, particularly in seaside resorts during New Year to keep an eye on ‘anyone coming in from the sea’, now has more policemen manning the city’s beaches and fishermen being asked to report any strange vessel or suspicious movement on the seas that come under the purview of the city police.

City Police Commissioner H. Venkatesh on Saturday visited the coastal police station at Vizhinjam, the only such station in the district and which covers the entire coastal belt of the district right up to Kappil near Varkala, starting from the Tamil Nadu border.

Reviewing the security situation and the preparatory status of the coastal police, Mr. Venkatesh said the police were in regular contact with the Coast Guard authorities here as well, while the Kadalora Jagratha Samithis – seashore vigil committees – comprising fishermen and coastal residents, had been asked to be on the lookout for suspicious elements, strangers and unfamiliar vessels.

Raid on lodges

The City police was continuing its vigil, with raids being conducted on lodges on a regular basis while night patrols by armed officers would also continue, ‘on a permanent basis’, he told The Hindu .

S. Suresh Kumar, Circle Inspector, Coastal Police, Vizhinjam, said the force had three interceptor boats, which had recently been repaired and equipped with the ‘latest weaponry’, with a 50-member police force.

Patrols along the coast were being conducted on a daily basis, he added.